Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and more—over the Internet (“the cloud”). Cloud computing provides computation, capacity, networking, and storage on demand. Computing resources such as computing (processing) machines, storage devices, and/or network devices may be simulated by one or more virtual machines (VMs). Several VMs may be hosted from a single physical hardware infrastructure resource (e.g., a server). Multiple virtual machines may be associated within a cloud infrastructure to form combinations of resources known as computing environments. Typical cloud computing service delivery may be based on a self-service usage model which allows a virtually unlimited amount of computing resources to be dynamically requisitioned, on demand, from a pool of shared computing resources. Thus, instead of grossly over-provisioning (or under-provisioning) initial, static computing resources due to uncertain demands, cloud computing may elastically provision infrastructure resources from the provider's pool only when needed.
Telecommunication carriers and network operators are deploying integrated cloud-based network infrastructure to transform their networks into software-based, service-centric networks. Software-Defined networks have many great advantages over legacy Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) networks, including network-on-demand capabilities, better capacity management, and low-cost maintenance. However, SDN networks are more vulnerable to software configuration problems, network interoperability issues, and run-time errors. Due to the nature of network function virtualization, software outages, if not prevented or fixed at their early stage, will likely grow exponentially and may eventually knock customers out of service. Without a solution to this problem telecommunications companies, will have to allocate abundant network administration resources to conduct network troubleshooting and configurations.
Consequently there is a need for to have a platform that can automatically test integrated cloud interoperability, adjacent network compatibility, and service chain connectivity when a new or modified integrated cloud is deployed. There is a need for a platform that can auto-detect potential network outages, resolve them, and refresh networks when needed so that once the proposed platform is deployed, network administration resources for network maintenance can be reduced and network performance can be improved.